The art of tablet making involves the making of a composition which is readily compressible, sturdy for packaging and handling, and disintegrable in a predictable manner. Speed of compression to an integral tablet is achieved by the use in the tablet, in addition to use of the active ingredient, a binder, and an excipient, of a lubricant which facilitates release of the powders from the molds in which the tablets are formed and from the dies and punches which ram the powders into the molds. In general, present lubricants are insoluble in water and will leave a residue after tablet disintegration, at a cost of consumer appeal in a transparent product such as coffee, tea and clear soups. For rapid disintegration tablets are compounded with disintegrants which as their name implies act to disintegrate the tablet under predetermined conditions. Disintegrants heretofore used include corn starch, alginic acid, celluloses, and polyvinyl pyrrolidone.
Lubricants heretofore used include talcum powder, magnesium stearate, calcium stearate, vegetable stearin, stearic acid, Carbowax (trademark), and the like. Leucine has been referred to as a lubricant, (Remington's Practice of Pharmacy, 12th Edition, 1961, at page 448) but no use thereof is known to applicant in combination with any particular product and/or disintegrating system, and particularly not previously known is the use of a leucine with the present disintegrating system. Such use is novel and provides unexpected benefits in that leucine is an amino acid and thus biologically acceptable in foodstuffs, is water soluble and thus leaves no residue, and has a highly palatable taste in liquids produced therewith, in addition to being a fine lubricant for tablet compositions. Thus, leucine, together with the disintegrating system disclosed herein, enables an organoleptically and esthetically pleasing, residue-free water reconstitution of foodstuffs such as beverages ranging from soft drinks to coffee, tea, cocoa, and soups, as well as of medications, e.g. those which are taken orally, such as asprin and antacid products.